December 31, 2010

Popping in on New Year's Eve to share my January Studio Calico layouts. This is definitely my favorite set of kits to date. There are just so many different things in each of the kits that I absolutely love!

1st up is "I love you dad..."

I know it says princess in the quote and not prince and no, that is not a mistake. That is exactly what she says whenever we ask her what her jammies say. If they say anything about "daddy's princess" or "I love daddy" she proceeds to tell us that it says "I love you dad.... you're my princess.... EVER my life!" It is the cutest thing and my favorite thing ever!! I adore the fact that she is daddy's girl and that they have such a close and sweet relationship! It truly melts me!!!

The cardstock (Geyser from American Crafts and one of my fave colors of theirs) and the crepe ribbon and some of the buttons and paper are all from the main kit Who's Who. The October Afternoon alphabet is from the Betty Crocker Add-On. So are the Maya Road flower embellishments. I misted the alphabet because it wasn't the perfect pink and I love how it turned out! I just misted the entire sheet before I even removed any of the letters. I used Strawberry Metallic, Pink, Bubblegum Metallic and Pink Grapefruit Metallic throughout my three layouts. Little sprays of this and that, mixing and layering them until I got the right pink. The key is to start by spraying very lightly and then you can add more and add other colors/hues if you want. The trim with the rosettes is from the Buster Brown Add-On and it started out as cream but of course I sprayed it with the mists as well. All the papers that I used for the banner are a mix from all the different kits. Also used the 3 in 1 Classic Butterfly Punch from Martha Stewart. Love that one! The chipboard pieces (dressform, flower and butterflies) were all a shop item but it looks like it is already sold out. They are from the House of 3/Pink Paislee Parisan Anthology line. I painted them and the Maya Road flowers all with different paints including the JBS Chewing Gum Paint Dabber, JBS Lemon Drops Paint Dabber, and the Claudine Hellmuth Classic Teal Paint. Journaling Pen was the American Crafts Precision Pen (08 for the lines and 03 for the wording).

Next is "I Love Him"

Background paper is my favorite! It's one of the SC exclusives from the main kit. Pink Polka Making Memories behind the photo is from the Mary Jane Add-On. The flowers were made with the Punky Sprouts Lil' Blooms from the main kit. I used the pink mists for the large one and then used Mister Huey's Sunshine, Sunflower Yellow and a little Cream on the smaller flower. I used Silver Plated Mist on the cake platter chipboard piece which is again from the Parisian Anthology set. On the small chipboard butterfly I used American Crafts Zing Embossing Powder in the Powder blue color. I stamped the large hearts with the SC stamp set from the Mary Jane Add-On and embossed them with American Crafts Zing embossing powder in the Silver glitter finish. I love how their glitter embossing powder turns out!! So pretty!! Journaling Pen on this one is the American Crafts Slick Writer. No rhyme or reason as to why I used the slick writer on this one and not the last. I just love this pen so when I don't need a finer tip point (like the other smaller ones) I always grab the slick writer.

Last is "Daughter"

This is my first time ever using the Ranger Ink Blending Tool and like I said before, I am addicted to it!! LOVED it! I already ordered 5 more and probably contributed to the fact that they are now sold out! oops!! But I am sure SC will get more in soon!! I also ordered the holder that I linked to in my sneak peek post. Thanks for the tip Jennifer!! The inks I used on the background paper were Worn Lipstick and Spun Sugar and American Crafts Silver. Then after that I sprayed the Maya Mist in Silver Plated over the entire thing. The background paper that has this beautiful resist pattern (that shows up once you ink and mist it) is in the main kit from Pink Paislee/House of 3 Parisian Anthology! I am now also addicted to this paper and need more asap!! :) The small chipboard butterflies are from the Betty Crocker Add-On. I painted them and the large butterfly (from the Parisian Anthology set) with the same yellow and blue paints that I listed before. Then I also sprayed them with the Silver Plated mist. I sprayed the large one with a little of the Hyndrangea Blue mist on the edges and kind of let it puddle and dry like that. Centers of the flowers were cut from the cream rosette ribbon that I had misted pink. And then I used the 3-in-1 Butterfly punch here again too. Journaling is with the AC Precision Pens here again.

I think that's it!! Lots of misting and painting this month!! It was so fun! If you have any questions be sure to let me know and I will do my best to answer!

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On a different note I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of my blog readers for sharing 2010 with me here on the blog. I appreciate all of you so much and the support and encouragement I get from you! Trust me that I read every comment and take each one to heart. I truly appreciate you!! Thanks for an amazing 2010 and I'm looking forward to an even better 2011........ more online photography workshops, a brand new website, more Studio Calico, more Creating Keepsakes, American Crafts, Making Memories and also some fun guest features and collaborations that are in the beginning stages! I can't wait to see it all unfold and see where 2011 takes us!! Oh and p.s........ since we are talking about what's ahead........I can't leave out the biggest and best news of all....... baby number 5 will be arriving in 2011 as well!!! CAN't wait!!!!!!!! eeeeeek!!! so excited!!!!!!!!! Have a great New Year's Eve everyone!!! See you on the other side!

December 24, 2010

Hi there! Happy Christmas Eve!! I can't believe it is almost here! In some ways it feels like we have been preparing forever and in other ways I feel like this month has FLOWN by!!

One of my favorite things about Christmas time is the holiday decor! Each year I add a few things to my collection and it is fun to work the new in with the old. I get so excited to pull it all out each year! It's like an early Christmas for me - feels like I am unwrapping a bunch of presents! And then I love spending a few days arranging and moving things around and finding the perfect home for each little thing. Then when it is all in place we get to enjoy it for the entire month of December! It sure helps get us in the spirit especially since we don't get snow here and outside it still feels like any other day! I am loving how my collection has grown the last few years and each little vignette truly makes me happy!!

The tree where we have all of the ornaments that the kids have made over the years. It is getting quite full...... we may need something bigger next year:

Big ornaments hanging over the island in the kitchen:

Giant snowflakes hanging in between the kitchen and the family room:

Some more detail shots. By now you can tell that I love glass jars:

And finally a couple detail shots of the tree:

Hope you are enjoying the holidays as much as I am! We have a big day today! My sister and her family are in town for Christmas and we are having a party at my parents' house! Then tonight I will be finishing up the wrapping and waiting for Santa to come..... enjoy your day!!

December 23, 2010

One could assume that I did a lot of misting this month.... but I am not sure how you would come to that assumption....... haha! These mists do not normally reside on my scrap table or on my floor by my scrap table. So that means I pulled all of these out to use this month! Holy cow, that is a lot of misting and it was a lot of mixing of colors to get what I wanted! I misted the heck out of this kit....... misted fabric, paper, chipboard, ribbon, alphabet stickers and plastic! Oh my! I also used some paint this month too. Oh and ink too!

Wow, I guess you could say I really got my fingers dirty this time around! It was a messy and inspiring and fun dose of creative play for me! One thing I got out of it was the reminder that I don't have to use things for face value. While I absolutely adore all of the kits this month, I still found that I wanted to tweak a lot of the pieces to make the colors just right for my layouts. Instead of simply tossing something aside because it didn't fit my exact color scheme, I just painted, misted and inked until I got what I wanted! And I loved it!! And I also love that my pages feel that much more artsy and detailed.... so eclectic and so me!!

I'll give details as to the exact things I used when I share the complete layouts but you could probably safely say I used every color of yellow, pink and blue found here. I also ordered an Ink Blending Tool and used it for the first time and LOVED it! YOu will definitely need a pack of extra foam pieces so you can keep one for each color. And actually I realized that I do want to adopt Jennifer McGuire's idea of having lots of the tools so that you don't have to change out the foam pieces every time (it is kind of a pain). So I think I will start ordering an extra tool or two each month and slowly build up my supply! And then I am going to want her storage thingie too! Eeeek!

Anyway, here are my peeks. I got all of the kits this month and just mixed them all up. They are all super fabulous and right up my alley!!

Also, there is a shop item that I used on all 3 layouts.... It will be available when the kits go live and I LOVE it!!! I'll link to it once it's there! Hope you are all ready for Christmas. I am feeling the last minute anxiety and remembering things that I haven't done yet and need to! Time is seriously running out!! I need to make a list and a plan!! :) Be back soon........

This is another 6 week online photography class that is the perfect follow up to my beginner/intermediate. The beg class is all about teaching you how to get the best possible image straight out of camera. Then in the advanced we take it to the next level and learn how to edit those photos so that they will look even more magical! It also covers things like advanced lighting and when/how to use your external flash. The complete course outline can be found here.

You are not required to take the beg/intermediate course before the advanced but I do strongly recommend it. If you are already completely comfortable shooting in manual mode and you feel like you can pretty much nail your exposure and focus most of the time, then you are welcome to jump right to the advanced course. I have also had students take the advanced first and then go back and take the beginner/intermediate after because they felt like they needed a refresher on the basics... and that is perfectly fine too!

You can REGISTER by going to my workshops page and clicking on the registration links that are listed in the right hand column. The spots have been previously opened up to my waiting list so a lot of them are already filled. The remaining spots will be filled on a first come, first serve basis. Now is the time to register if you want to guarantee your seat!

This is the perfect gift you can give to a loved one or to YOURSELF this Christmas! :) Or you can ask someone to give it to you! I know from personal experience that there is nothing worse than spending LOTS of money on nice camera equipment (something many of us do this time of year) only to be extremely disappointed that our pictures didn't improve drastically! The missing component is education and knowledge on how to make the camera work for you! One of the main focuses of my beginner class is teaching you how to be in charge of your camera so you can get the results you want! It's so exciting!!

Here are a few TESTIMONIALS from some of my previous students:

"I just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your online classes. I took both the beginner and intermediate photography classes and they were great.

I've taken other online classes, and though I have learned a lot, I learned the most from your classes.

Thank you for sharing your hard work and your talent. Many blessing to you and your cute family" Deb Zorn

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"I want to thank you for your class. When it first began I was worried that I wasn't good enough, that my skills were not there. It was hard to post photos knowing that they were not my best, but I became comfortable with you and loaded the pictures I was having problems with. You gave me such wonderful feedback and now I am able to see details in my photos that I had missed before. Before I could tell my photo was 'off' but could not pinpoint what the problem was. Because I couldn't tell what the problem was, I didn't know how to fix it.

Your class was such a growing experience and I was sad when the class ended. I LOVED the last assignment. Again it was hard to put my photos out there to the other students, but it was wonderful. It helped me give words to my style, when before I didn't even realize I had a style!

Your encouragement made me take so many of the photos that have been swimming in the back of my head. I finally dragged our kitchen table into the living room and took the picture of my baby girl on a fuzzy rug in the middle of the wood floor. Thank you! As I uploaded the photos onto my flickr account I actually did a double take. I felt an amazing sense of pride. I took those pictures. And they look good. In a few short weeks you've help me bring my talent up to the next level.

I am so grateful." Jen

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"I wanted to say I learned soooo much from your class- it was a great six weeks and am sad to see it end (wondering if you are thinking of developing anymore classes??? ) The content was incredible- feedback great and I really feel like I have grown in my skills....!!! Thank you so much for everything- your insight, teaching and information was absolutely incredible!!! I am going back to the tutorials/assignments to make sure I have all the information:) Thank you again and good luck with everything!!! I hope you do some more classes, I would take them in a heartbeat:)" Rachel Healey

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"I took your first beginner class March of last year and I've taken classes from 2 other instructors since then. And I am SOOOOO happy and thankful to be back in your Advanced class now! You are by far my favorite instructor. Maybe I'm just partial because you taught me how to get the heck out of auto!! :-) I am forever grateful for that, but that's not it! I really truly love your lesson writing style and class format. I'm looking forward to watching the videos to feel like I'll get to know you a little more!! If you ever have a level 3 class, I will be right there!!!! For now, I'm off to bed!" Kimberly

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"This was a fantastic class to take in order to get familiar with shooting manual and learning some tricks of the trade! I have tried a few different "self teaching" methods and using books, and the way Maggie explains things in her lessons was so much more effective! I learned so much from the class and feel so much more comfortable with my camera now - and LOVE the results I get since I've learned to shoot in manual. I am looking forward to taking the advanced class from Maggie and learning even more!" Christiane

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On a final note from me, it is truly rewarding to go back through and read the sweet emails from my students with their feedback. I can't even express how exciting it is to see them make so much progress in such a short amount of time. Can I just say that I am blessed and truly grateful that I get to do this? It is the best!!

Looking forward to getting started on the classes again since I have had a short break during the crazy busy holiday photography season. I am also even more excited about 2011 and these first 2 classes because my BRAND NEW WEBSITE will be launching in time for the first class! This has been a long time coming and I had to make a huge U-turn a few months back and start over with new designers/developers but since starting down this new path I am giddy with excitement about everything! Not only is the design completely ME, but the systems and functions that they are implementing are going to make my classes run soooo much more smoothly! I can't wait to start using the new site!

December 10, 2010

If you took my class on photography at Creative Escape earlier this year, then you will know exactly what the title of this post means and how it relates to the photos..... more on that in a minute.

I took Emily out one HOT afternoon in September for a quick little photo shoot before the boys got out of school. We are talking around 1pm and it was boiling hot! We were only out there for 15 minutes because it was literally THAT hot! I was clicking fast I tell ya and the funny thing is that somehow I got 60 photos that I LOVE in that short amount of time! I just finally had a chance to go through them and I don't know what I am going to do with all 60 photos because I want to print every single one! I think I will have to try to narrow it down to a few big prints for the house and then I think I will make a custom little photo book with all of them. Then of course I will be printing all of them to scrapbook! I am sure you will see lots of these in the months to come on my pages for Creating Keepsakes, Studio Calico and American Crafts!

Anyway, I can't share all 60 of them in one blog post (that might be a little over indulgent anyway haha!) so I will share handfuls of them over the next few weeks. Lots of the photos are ones that take my breath away and speak to me in a way that I can't even describe to someone else. They are those photos that melt my heart and make it start pounding and make me a big ole giant mess of motherly emotions in one single instant. They are those photos that speak to me and convey "more than words can say".....

They are the photos that made me fall in love with photography in the first place. They are the photos that make me want to keep snapping away every second of every day. They are the ones that make me want to keep improving my skills so that I can continue to capture and create magic through the lens. They are the ones that make me want to share what I know and how I do it and make me thankful that I get to teach my online photography classes so I can do just that. Today I am grateful for photography and grateful for photos and grateful that I can capture these little moments so I can tuck them away to treasure forever!

December 09, 2010

Well sheesh! It is about time I shared some photos! I have been crazy crazy editing and editing my little life away these past few weeks! By now I know to expect it this time of year and I try to gear up for it but at the same time I seem to forget how super busy it can be! I become like a little hermit in here on the computer staring at all of my beautiful clients every day!

Wow, I have lots of fun shoots to share from this past couple of months and I doubt I will even get the time to post them all on here but I will try! Here are a few from a cute family that I photographed again this year. It's amazing how much this little cutie has grown since the last time I saw her!

December 06, 2010

Hi there! I'm popping in from my phone today! I've never blogged from my phone before so I hope this works!

We are all ready for the holidays! I absolutely love decorating for Christmas! It's my favorite and even though I tend to go a little overboard, my hubby forgives me cause he knows it makes me happy!!

We have never done lights on the outside of our house even though our kids are always asking. We thought maybe we would do it this year but Brian is taking his finals (he's in his first semester of law school!!) and we were running out of time.... So we decided to just bring the lights inside instead!